At least we got a couple of good days in before once again the weather turned to shite! With the good days we did have 99% of the talk in the fishing fraternity has been focused on the bluefin tuna and there highly anticipated arrival into our waters. Straight of Jervis Bay is yet to produce good numbers of the bluefin with only a small handful being caught along albacore and stripey’s so far, however south of us is a different story with some nice bluefin and good numbers coming in over the weekend and the start of this week. Yesterday of Batemans Bay sounds like one of the better days with boats getting fish up to the back of the boat in the cube trail. This is when the Bluefin fishing comes into its own with fish ranging anywhere from 40kg to 70kg shouldering each other out of the way to grab the next pilliy thrown over the gunnel. At this stage Saturday may be fishable going off current forecasts but I wouldn’t hold your breath, and if it is good enough I think it will only be the big boats heading out anyway coz conditions will still be pretty sloppy. If you’re heading out for a bluefin adventure we have all the gear you need along with both IQF and trap bait pilchards with a box of either one of these being a mandatory.

Other reports from offshore here are saying the current has slowed enough for the deep droppers to have a bit of success, Cookie from cooks tyres and his crew aboard “Offshore Hooker “managed a nice mixed bag on the weekend including Hapuka, blue eye and ling, these guys are masters of what they do and seldom come home without a feed of deepwater ooglies!
The banks has big schools of rat kings on it with a few better fish amongst them, getting baits to the larger fish is the only issue, well that and the norm of not being able to stop them before they get to the reef!

Inside Jervis Bay squid are a plenty and getting your bag limit is a pretty quick and easy task at the moment. Most reports are coming from the south side of the bay around Murray’s Break wall and surrounds so with the weather we have in stall for us over the next few days this may offer some protection from the south wind if you’re keen enough to brave the other elements. Just remember the bag limits in the ACT waters are only 10 squid per person which really is enough anyway. In the way of jigs well there isn’t a lot that isn’t working, greens, pinks, orange you name it the squid are taking it, now it’s not too often this happens so make the most of it while it lasts! Next week it will probably be back to one or two jigs out fishing the rest 10 to 1.

Further south of Sussex Inlet and Berrara there have been some nice reds in close along with flathead and mowies, these fish have shown up just in time for the start of the week long Annual Sussex Inlet family fishing carnival which kicks off on Friday so if you fancy yourself as a bit of a fisherman or want to get the kids involved in a friendly fishing competition environment head along. You can get all the details off the web, just Google Sussex Inlet Family Fishing Carnival and the info you need will come up. The inlet itself is fishing well for blackfish on the top of the tide before the dirty cold water coming out of the basin flows through with the tide dirtying things up. Weed at the moment is as rear as rocking horse poop so either cabbage from the rocks or squirt worms at the moment are your other options.....or or wait for it.....green weed flies, yep the good old green weed fly accounts for plenty of fish when needed.

Hope you all enjoyed the read for this week and stay tuned for up to date reports as they come in, although I somehow don’t think there will be many for the next few days.
Cheers Johnny

Ooglies from the deep!!
Pic 1...."Ox" Oxley with a big blue cod from the depths
Pic 2....This time with a big ling
Pic 3....Cookie with a hapuka that couldnt belive its eyes when it was caught so they popped out of its head!